Whoopie pies go West, make comeback in East

Stacy Finz, Hearst Newspapers

Published 5:46 pm, Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Not too long ago I was eating at Bruno's in San Francisco with a couple of pals. For dessert we ordered whoopie pies. None of us really knew what a whoopie pie was, but the name sounded too fun to pass up.

"I'm pretty sure it's like a moon pie and it's Southern," I said, showing how clearly misinformed I was.

Pretty soon I started seeing them everywhere in the Bay Area: on restaurant menus, in bakery cases and on grocery store shelves. I wondered, "Could this be the new cupcake (for some bizarre reason food writers are always trying to usurp the cupcake)?" Later, I found out that whoopie pies are actually a New England treat -- a hamburger-size cookie sandwich, where the cookie is cake-y rather than crisp, and the filling is light and moist. It may or may not have originated from Pennsylvania Amish country.

I gathered up all the whoopie pies I could find to dissect them. The best ones were moist, with a balanced, creamy filling.

The bad ones were too sweet and reminded me of Hostess Devil Dogs.

Amy Treadwell, who, along with Sarah Billingsley, wrote "Whoopie Pies," a cookbook published this year by Chronicle Books, says the traditional whoopie is composed of marshmallow creme filling sandwiched between two chocolate cookies. She uses the term cookie loosely, because whoopie pies are more cake-like than cookie, and nothing like a pie -- go figure.

"Not all cookie sandwiches are whoopie pies, " she says. "An Oreo, for instance, would not fall under the whoopie pie category. There should be no crunch. But all whoopie pies are cookie sandwiches."

Treadwell, who is from Massachusetts, and Billingsley, from Pennsylvania, grew up on the stuff. Both now live in the Bay Area and thought it was high time to shine a spotlight on the cookies that brought them so much joy as children. And the timing couldn't have been better -- last year the New York Times reported that the nostalgic treats were making a comeback on the East Coast.

Soon, bloggers, Facebookers and Tweeters were pronouncing them the next big thing.

Susan Sarich, owner of Susie Cakes in San Francisco, Greenbrae and Los Angeles, says the cookies have become so popular that in the last year people have been ordering them super-sized to be served as cakes at birthday parties and other celebrations. She says she's also getting a fair amount of orders for bite-sized ones to be used as wedding favors.

Sarich got her recipe from her Boston grandmother, although she thinks whoopie pies really originated in Pennsylvania, where Amish wives made them to put in their husbands' lunch pails.

"As the story goes, when the husband opened his sack and found the cookie, he'd shout, `Whoopie!' and that's how the dessert got its name, " she says.

Treadwell has heard that story, too, but says she can't corroborate it. "In fact, Mainers would likely argue that they invented the whoopie pie, " she says.

Dark Chocolate Whoopie Pie

8 ounces dark chocolate, round/oval "drops" or chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (see Note)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 recipe Easy Classic Whoopie Pie Filling (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place a clean, dry bowl into a hot water bath. Add the chocolate, stirring often until just melted; remove from heat and set aside. Use a mixer on medium to medium-high speed to cream the butter and sugar together until light in color. Add one egg and thoroughly incorporate - stopping to scrape as needed; repeat with second egg. Add the warm, melted chocolate and mix completely, scraping down the sides. Combine milk and vanilla extract into the mixture. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt; add to the mixing bowl and blend in, stopping to occasionally scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Portion dough with a 1-ounce scoop and place about 2-inches apart on prepared baking sheet. You should have 24 cookies. Bake until tops spring back lightly when touched, about 8 minutes, but switch shelves and rotate sheets after 5 minutes. The 2 1/2- to 3-inch diameter cookies will appear slightly cracked on top.

To assemble: When cookies are thoroughly cooled, match up evenly-shaped pairs. Spread or pipe 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons filling onto the flat bottom of a cookie, then top with its mate. Makes 12.

Note: To measure flour, stir first to "loosen" it a bit; use a dry measuring cup to dip and scoop, then level.

This creamy filling from Lynne Char Bennett and Britt Billmaier is soft enough to pipe, yet maintains its integrity when sandwiched between the cookie layers. You can make it a day or two ahead and store in the refrigerator; bring it to room temperature to make the whoopee pies easy to assemble.

Easy Classic Whoopie Pie Filling

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow fluff

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

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Use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to cream the butter and powdered sugar at medium-high speed until thoroughly combined, about 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. (You can also use a hand mixer, but it will take longer.) Add marshmallow fluff, salt and vanilla; mix on medium speed until combined.